


i'll steal all your hoodies (we'll laugh til we can't breathe)

by remembermyfic



Series: 2019 Snail Mail Advent Calendars [1]
Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - High School, Because this is hs, F/M, dance team au, there are also some swear words, there are some implications of underage sex stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:27:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21705940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remembermyfic/pseuds/remembermyfic
Summary: “It should be in the next pep rally. Get PK on the phone, make it happen.”Clarissa hums a little but does reach for her phone. “Jess, talk to your man, make it happen.”“Oh for God's sake, Eric does not control pep rally!”“You could as a power couple if you would actually do something about it.”“I did!”
Relationships: Jeff Skinner/Eric Staal
Series: 2019 Snail Mail Advent Calendars [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1564486
Comments: 1
Kudos: 43





	i'll steal all your hoodies (we'll laugh til we can't breathe)

**Author's Note:**

> QUICK SPOILER-Y WARNING in the endnotes in regards to the underage thing. Because they are in high school in this AU. I'm not tagging it as an archive warning because there are no details or explicit followings of things that occurred. 
> 
> IF YOU ARE OR KNOW THOSE THAT ARE TAGGED this is where you click out of the tags. This is a fictional work, I don't know these people, I'm using them as characters.

“You should probably just pull a Naked Man on him.”

Jess barely gives Tyler a glance. It’s not her fault. Her eyes are busy tracking Eric Staal across the cafeteria until he settles on a bench with his brothers and fellow basketball players. She lets out a sigh when he looks up, catches her eye and immediately looks away.

“It’s not entirely out of the question.”

Jack snorts from beside her, picking the cucumbers out of her salad. “I think I would pay to see that.”

“Don’t even start. The minute you get over yourself you’ll be all over McDavid, don’t think we don’t all see it.”

“I’m not as hopeless as Skins.”

Jess snorts, well aware of the sly little smile Jack thinks she’s hiding. “Small difference, he’s the one that has to get over himself.”

“You’re telling me Jessica Skinner doesn’t have something else up her sleeve?” Clarissa’s tray clatters as she sets it down. “Also, Git Up Challenge?”

“Hell no,” Tyler responds. “You want clickbait, talk to PK.”

“He’d do it,” Steph agrees. “And you know he’d post it.”

“It would be in the next pep rally.”

“It should be in the next pep rally. Get PK on the phone, make it happen.”

Clarissa hums a little but does reach for her phone. “Jess, talk to your man, make it happen.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, Eric does not control pep rally!”

“You could as a power couple if you would actually do something about it.”

“I did!”

The table falls silent, stunned.

“What?”

“I kissed him,” Jess says, staring at her tray. “PK’s stupid party two weeks ago.”

“You were _drunk_.”

“I was sober until then.” Crickets follow and Jess rolls her eyes. “Tipsy.”

“Fair.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

“I believe that.”

“The point is, I tried.”

“And he turned you down?” Steph asks. “I call bullshit.”

Jess straight out drops her head to the table, barely missing her own lunch. “He’s hung up on me being a sophomore and I hate it.”

“Because he’s a senior?” Tyler snorts. “That’s a bullshit excuse if I’ve ever heard one.”

“She would know. Didn’t Benn keep you at arm’s length for like, a year?”

“Uh huh, until he found me naked that one time-“ She cackles when the napkins come flying.

Jess looks up, finds Eric looking at her again, through the split of two juniors. With a groan she drops her head to the table. “I hate him.”

“I know, boo.” Steph even rubs her back.

Jess sighs. “I hate everything.”

“Hey Jess.”

“Eric!” It’s embarrassing, how she almost throws all of the textbooks on the ground. “Hi.”

Of course, he helps her steady them. His hands are huge. “Um. Is everything okay?”

“Yes?”

“You looked, um. Frustrated. At lunch.”

“What?”

“With your friends?”

It takes Jess more than a beat to get her brain to comprehend what he’s referring to. She hates the fact that she flushes about it. “It’s really not a conversation you want to have.” She really wishes the statement had come across as less of a question.

“I mean. Isn’t that my choice?”

Oh hell no. He does not get to pretend to be the reasonable one when the whole reason she’s frustrated is because he’s not-

Oh.

“The same way me kissing you was my decision? The same way my choosing you was respected?”

He goes from empathetic to frustrated and honestly, Jess gets it. But she also feels too righteous, too in her element here because dammit, she knows she finally has him. “Jess-“

“No. No. You don’t get to stand there and lecture me on giving you a choice when you’re making a choice for me that I explicitly told you was unfair.”

“You’re young.”

“And therefore dumb? And therefore unable to make my own choices?”

“You know that’s not-“

“Then it has to be _all_ of my choices.”

Eric’s face presses into an unhappy line. “What happens in a year when I’m away at college?”

“I support you while you’re there?”

“When I can’t be there and you want me to be?”

“I have friends. They’re already used to dealing with your shit.”

“Jess, you’re young-“

“It’s literally an eighteen month age difference.” She’d checked because Jordan finds the whole thing entertaining and is more than happy to torture his older brother.

“-and you should date other young people.”

“For fuck’s sake.” She fists her hands in his shirt and yanks him in, pushing up on her tiptoes to get her mouth on his. She’s not nice about it, and can’t help but groan when he gets his arms around her and reciprocates in kind. It’s a natural conclusion that breaks them apart, which surprises Jess on a whole different level.

“That was never the problem.”

Jess groans and bangs her head on his chest. “You’re so fucking stubborn. You know this would be great, and amazing and you could hold my hand in the hall and walk me to class and help me with my science homework because your ridiculous basketball brain has somehow managed to make sense of physics and mine can’t-“

She makes an embarrassing whimpering noise when he grabs her ponytail. “You’ve thought about this.”

“Of course I have. What did you think this was?”

“No but… the domestic stuff.”

“Eric Staal, what kind of girl do you take me for?”

He looks awed when she lifts her head and it takes a lot of will power to hold back her gasp. “Like a girl that goes after what she wants.”

Jess feels relief race through her. “Eric.”

He wraps her up tighter. “I kept thinking about you at the cottage, or meeting my mom-“

“Yes,” she says. “Yes please.”

He laughs and leans down again and knowing she’ll get to do this more, that she gets to have this, makes the kisses sweeter. “Let me take you out.”

“Milkshakes?” She’s already turning back to her locker, trying to remember what the hell she needs for her homework.

“You want our first date to be milkshakes?”

“Milkshakes are delicious,” she replies, slamming her locker shut and tamping down the thrill of going on a real, honest-to-goodness date with him. “If you’re lucky, maybe I’ll share.”

He laughs but takes her hand and Jess doesn’t even try to hold back her grin.

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILERS: the girls talk about some sex stuff. As high schoolers, they are underage in 99% of jurisdictions. None of it is explained or blatant or detailed. 
> 
> (Hopefully over the next 52 weeks or so, I'll be putting up one of the Advent Fics from the 2019 calendar. There are 26 in all, not including the Auston/Mitch ones I've already posted. Those who love me, please hold me as accountable as possible to this <3 )
> 
> Title from A Typical Teenaged Love Song by Tate McRae #basictitle


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